Tears were still in Logan’s eyes as Miss Tanaka held him painfully tight between her fingers. He shook his head in desperation and hoped that she wouldn’t do something like that to him again.

“You know Logan you’re not the first shrunken guy trying to stand up for his so called rights and you surely won’t be the last one. But the faster you understand that this has no use at all and will only cause pain and humiliation the better”, Miss Tanaka whispered. The hot air coming from her mouth when she talked was like a wave of hot steam and Logan only managed to nod as he feared that he would cry again if he actually talked.

“Good…I think you have learned your lessons for today shrinkee so you’ll be brought back to your shelf now… Mrs Wentworth!”

Mrs Wentworth entered the room and Logan wondered whether she had been standing in front of the door for a while now. She took Logan from Miss Tanaka and brought him back to the shelf where he would live from now on. His shelf-mates gathered around him as he was placed on their level again. Logan was trembling but as he looked into the eyes of his fellow mates he realised that every one of them had gone through this by now.

“You better get used to it quickly I advise”, A voice from a lower level of the shelf yelled. Logan remained quiet and sat down on a piece of plastic furniture shaped like an armchair.

“You will never get fully used to it but I can tell that you’ve tried to resist haven’t you?” Dominic asked who sat down next to him and put his arm on Logan’s shoulder. Logan nodded.

“Well at least you were smart enough to let yourself be treated like a slave and not like a bug or you wouldn’t be sitting here now!” Jamie stated in an encouraging inflexion.

One after another the people on his level tried to cheer him up and it would be a lie to say it didn’t work. Nevertheless Logan remained quiet except for a “thank you” once in a while. By time he went to sleep in the area made for it. There were several mattresses made of foamed material and matching blankets.

His first night in his new prison remained quite sleepless though and every time he managed to fall asleep he was haunted by nightmares of Miss Tanaka’s foot which he knew he hadn’t seen for the last time. Early in the morning the prisoners were wakened by Mrs Wentworth’s booming voice.

“Wake up bugs it’s time for our weekly purge as you might have suspected”, she yelled and shortly after ten other women, dressed in black business outfits, marched into the room. Logan was incredibly tired and confused as he watched how the women positioned themselves in the room.

“What the hell is going on?” He yelled at Dominic who had already stood up from his bed and walked over to Logan now.

“I’m sorry that we forgot to tell you about this… Once per week ten of us are sorted out by the administration and…” Dominic began.

“And then what? And how are they sorted out?” Logan replied while Mrs Wentworth pulled out a Clipboard with a list on it.

“It’s depending on how much they think we are worth for sale. And if they suspect you to become an unworthy slave you’re likely to be chosen. They say they do this because the amount of space for us is limited…”

“Enrico Perez 10:12:3, Rupert Cherrytree 4:8:1, Sydney Keyves 8:8:2…” Mrs Wentworth began reading.

“What happens to the chosen ones Dominic, tell me now!” Logan yelled.

But Dominic remained quiet and just pointed to Mrs Wentworth.

“…Karl Callahan 5:10:4, Milton Hendricks Sr. 12:12:4, Rosemary Kensington Ladinburgh 9:5:3…”

“What do the numbers mean?” Logan asked now a little bit intimidated by the on-going event.

“Line, shelf and level Logan and there are up to fifteen people per level. Twelve is the highest number in lines I heard till now and same goes for the shelf-number. And as you might have noticed each shelf has five levels so you can calculate yourself how many we are solely in this room.” Jamie started to explain while Mrs Wentworth made a dramatic break.

“On which line and shelf are we?” Logan asked.

“12:12…” Dominic stated with a worried expression in his face.

“And this is the first time someone from this shelf was chosen”, Jamie added. In this moment Logan noticed some people were crying on the level above but he still wasn’t sure what was going to happen even though he had a worrying suspicion.

“Veronica Stefenson 1:2:1, Lars Scharrheimer 9:8:5, Kendrick Luther Jameson 2:8:3 and…“ She made another dramatic break and now Logan too was waiting stressed for her to bring up the last name.

“A girl from line one and a guy from line two… this is happening only very rarely”, Nathan stated.

“You know the people in line one and two were the first who were brought here. Ordinarily they have adapted perfectly to their new environment and are most likely to be sold soon while you for example were placed in 12:12 because you’re the newest member of our little society”, Nathan explained to Logan.

“…John Chester Middley 12:11:3”, Mrs Wentworth finished.

“John Chester Middley, the Journalist?” Logan cried out. Dominic nodded looking somewhat sad about that last choice. Logan watched as two women came into his line. One stopped on the shelf next and the other one right in front of him. Level three was directly beneath her chest and he could see the shape of her huge hills through her black business blazer as she reached out for the poor guy on the level above.

“Nooo don’t take Milton please”, he heard a female cry out. As the woman moved away from the shelf again he saw that guy crying in her hand. Logan then turned around to see how a Journalist whose articles he had always enjoyed reading was grabbed from the shelf-level directly next to his one. Logan saw how the other people on that shelf closed their eyes and yelled a harmonic “farewell” in unison. Logan could see tears running down their cheeks and felt how his own eyes were slowly filling with liquid too even though he still didn’t know what was awaiting poor Mr Middley. When the women had disappeared from their line Logan noticed artificial light coming from the right corner of the shelf-level. A giant screen had turned on where he could see the windows surface. Within the following seconds a stream opened up where he could see a wide carpeted floor. The camera filming this obviously stood on the ground and Logan could see the ten chosen ones standing a good distance away from it. His shelf-mates gathered around him and together they watched the screen nervously. The ten people were mostly crying and Logan could spot Mr Middley who seemed to be the only one in control of his emotions. Then a pair of beautiful tanned legs and feet appeared wearing no shoes or socks. The toe-nails were painted pink which made Logan suggest that it was another woman. He actually suspected all normal sized people in this god damned prison to be women after all since he hadn’t seen any male so far.

Suddenly her hand appeared to and it was holding some kind of spray with which she now sprinkled a red coloured liquid onto the shrunken people but one could still not see her face. Logan saw the people coughing and wondered whether it had been some kind of poison but none of the people seemed to be really harmed yet.

“And now run…” her voice sad threateningly and nine of the ten started running. The only one who didn’t seem to care about the order was the journalist Mr Middley. He looked into the camera and said “There is no sense in running fellows, I hope times will change for you” he yelled loud enough for the people in front of the screen to hear it through the speakers. Just when he had finished his sentence the people around Logan turned around irritating Logan who still watched the screen only to see how the woman’s bare foot began dangling over Mr Middley’s tiny body. Logan was confused and scared as he watched how that woman descended her big toe on Mr Middley’s body pressing and grinding him into the carpet. Logan could imagine that this wasn’t very pleasant for the journalist he admired but he would have never thought of what he had to watch next. Her big toe rose again and there was only a red stain left on it and on the carpet.

“No way, the spray? Why?” he exclaimed with tears in his eyes.

Dominic dragged Logan away from the screen and laid his hand on his shoulder “Yes Logan and it’s a matter of fear buddy it should keep us motivated…”